brandão costa arquitectos . photos: © arménio teixeira -model- . © andré cepeda -building –
The programme required the combining of two distinct and antagonistic functions (workshop and house) in a single construction, demanding their absolute autonomy, isolation and the absence of any visual relationship.
The natural slope of the ground and its orientation in relation to the sun were the key to this difficult equation. Two parallelepiped pavilions, arranged perpendicular to each other, create an L-shaped volume fragmented at the different levels of the existing topography.
The house, an open nave fully facing the sun, with a free structural span, soars horizontally from the level of the threshold indicating the entrance to the domestic space which stands out from the ground and relates continuously with the sun-drenched landscape of the valley through a narrow gallery contiguous to the internal space. In this way it becomes external in relation to the ground and protected from neighbouring plots that are disconnected and uninteresting.
The workshop, an east-facing nave, is built on the base of a short-span portico that marks the start of a long veranda for loading and unloading, protected by the corresponding coffers.
The construction is a unique object made of two elements, opposites in structure, geometry and nature, as required by the programme presented. However, it is precisely in that antagonism that the shape seems to gain meaning and coherence.
_
project:
“mental” house and factory
location:
carregosa, oliveira de azeméis, portugal
date:
2010 – 2019
building area:
600 m2
architecture:
nuno brandão costa
collaborators:
luísa moura,
rita leite
structural engineer:
ana isabel vale (abprojectos)
hydraulic engineer:
ana isabel vale (abprojectos)
electrical engineer:
maria da luz santiago
(rs associados)
mechanical engineer:
raul bessa (get)
model photographs:
arménio teixeira
building site photographs:
andré cepeda
